Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-04-16
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINEs SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "Cheer For the Disheart
ened." preached at Kan
sas City, NO.

E4I' NO mum cuTeu JoT my SOUL -
Psalms cxlii., A.
David, the rubicund lad, had become the
battle worn warrior. Three thousand armed
men in pursuit of him, he had hidden in the
cave of Engedi, near the coast of the Dead
Sea. Utterly tagged out with the pursuit, as
you have often been worn out with the trials
of life, he sat down and cried out: mo man
cared for my soul.n
If you should fall through ha tchway, or
slip from scaffolding, or drop through a
skylight, there would be hundreds of people
body and carry it to your home or to the
hospital. ] saw great crowd of people in
the street. and asked: What is the matterg'
and found out that poor laboring man had
fallen under sunstroke; and all our eyes were
filed with tears at the thought of his dis
tracted wife and his desolate home.
We are all sympathetic with physical disas-
ter, but how little sympathy for spiritual
woes! There are men in this house who have
come to mid-life who have never yet been once
personally accosted about their eternal well
fare. A great sermon dropped into an andi-
ence of hundreds of thousands will do its work
brt if this world is ever to be brought to God
it will be through little sermons preached to
private Christians, to an audience OF one.
The sisters letter postmarked at the
village-the word uttered in your
heal ing, half of smiles and half of tears-the
religious postscript to business letter-the
card left at the door when you had some kind
of trouble-the anxious look of some one
across church aisle while an earnest sermon
was being preached, swung you into the King
dom of God. But there are hundreds of peo-
pie in this house who will take the word that
David used in the past tense, and employ it
in the present tense, and cry out: mo man
cares for my soul. :"
You feel as you go out day by day in the
fIlp and i0cf1n of life that n
himself. You can endure the pressure of
commercial affairs, and would consider it al
most impertinent for any one to ask Won
whether you are making or losing money
But there have been times when you would
have drawn your check for thousands of dol
lars if some would only help your soul out of
its perplexities. There are questions about
your higher destiny that ache, and distract,
and agonize you at times. Let no one sup
pose that because you are busy all day with
hardware, or drygoods, or groceries, or grain,
that your thoughts are no longer than your
yard stick, and stop at the brass headed nails
Of the store counter. When you speak once
about religious things you think 5000 times.
They call you a wording. You are not
worldhng.. OF course you are industrious
and keep busy, but you have had your ewes
opened to the realities of the next world
You are not a fool. You know better
than any one can tell You know that a
few years at most will wind up your earthly
engagements, and that YOU will take resi-
dence in distant sphere where all your
business adroitness would be a superfluity.
You sometimes think till your head aches
about great religious subjects. You 90 down
the street with your eyes fixed on the pave
ment, oblivious Of the passing mutitudes,
your thoughts gone on eternal expedition.
You wonder if the Bible is true, how much of
it is literal and how much is figurative law.
if Christ be God, if there is anything like ret
ribution, if you are immortal, if resur-
rection will ever take place, what the occupa-
ton of your departed kindred is, what Won
Will be 10000 years from now. With cult
ured placidity of countenance you are on
fire with agitations of soul. Oh. this solitary
sold goods to or bought them from Christian
people for ten years, and they have never
whispered one word of spiritual counsel You
hsye passed up and down the aisles of
churches with men who knew that you had
no hope of heaven, and talked about the
weather and about your physical health, and
about everything but that concerning which
you most wanted to hear them speak, viz,
your everlasting spirit. Times without num-
Der you have felt in your heart, if you have
not uttered it with your lips: mo man cares
for my soul.o
There have been times when you were espe-
cially pliable on the great subject of re-
liglon. 1t was SO, for instance after you had
lost your property. You had great many
letters blowing you up for being unfortunate.
You showed that there had been a concstena-
ton of circumstances and that your insol-
vency was no fault of yours. Your creditors
talked to you as though they would have 100
cents on the dollar or-your life Protest after
protest tumbled IN on your desk Men who
used to take your hand with both of theirs
and shake it violently, now pass you on the
street with an almost imperceptible nod AZ
ser six or eight hours of scalding business
anxiety you go home and you shut the door,
and throw yourself on the sofa and you feel
in state of despair You wish that some
one would come in and break up the gloom.
Everything seems to be against you-the
bank against you. Your creditors against
you. Your friends suddenly become criti
cal against you. ALI the past against YOU.
All the future against you. You make re-
proachful cutlery: 'No man cares for my
There was another occasion when all the
doors of your heart swung open for sacred
influences. A bright light went out in your
household. Within three or four DAYS there
were compressed sickness, death, obseqlIies.
You were go lonely that 100 people coming
into the house did not break up the soltari-
ness. You were almost killed with the
domestic calamity. A few formal perfume
tory words OF consolation were uttered on the
stairs before you went to the grave; but you
wanted some one to come and talk over the
whole matter, and recite the alleviations, and
declpher the lessons of the dark bereavement.
No one came. Many time you could not
sleep until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, and
then your sleep was a troubled dream, in
which were reenacted all the scene of sickness
and parting, and dissolution. Oh, what days
and nights they werel No man seemed 10
care for your soul
There was another occasion when your
heart was very susceptible. There was a great
awakening. There were hundreds of people
who pressed into the kingdom Of God. some
OF Them acquaintance, some business associ-
ates, yes, perhaps, some members of your own
family were baptised by sprinkling or INNER
sion. Christian people thought Of you, and
they called OF your store, but you were out on
business. They stopped at your house: YOU
had gone. around to spend the evening. They
sent a kindly message TO you; somehow
by accident, You did not getit The lifeboat
Of the Gospel swept through the surf and
everybody seemed to get in but you Every
thing seemed to escape you. One touch Of
personal sympathy would have pushed Won
into the kingdom Of God When on comnun-
ion day your friends went in, and your sons
and daughters went into the church. YOU
buried your face in your handkerchief and
sobbed: why am ] left ont, Everybody
seems to get saved but me. No man cares for
my soul
Hearken to arevelation have TO make. It
Is startling statement. IL will 10 surprise